You may remember a few weeks ago we blogged about the dangers of prescription drugs. Local health and law enforcement officials have launched a campaign to make it easier for people to dispose of prescription medications in order to curb the alarming rate of accidents and deaths caused by them.
Steel drop boxes are being placed at police stations so that people can dispose of their left over prescription drugs safely and anonymously.
Fourteen medicine drop boxes have been established in nine Pierce County cities and towns: Puyallup, Tacoma, DuPont, Eatonville, Fife, Gig Harbor, Sumner, Steilacoom and University Place.
More than 8 million prescriptions were filled for Pierce County residents last year and so far this year, more than eight hundred pounds of prescription drugs have been left at the drop boxes. You can imagine how much damage that amount of drugs can cause, how many people will abuse them, how many will be accidentally poisoned, not to mention the environmental impact. According to the Health Department, prescription drug abuse causes more deaths in our state than methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin combined.
Ridding our cabinets of old prescriptions properly isn’t as easy as it may seem. It’s not a good idea to flush them down the toilet because sewage treatment plants and septic systems are not built to filter them out, and minute amounts of certain drugs can adversely affect aquatic life forms. If you throw them in the garbage there’s a potential for theft, plus the chemicals can leak out into the earth at the landfill.
Right now the drop boxes are the best option until either the law makers and/or drug producers do something about it.
A couple things to remember: never take medications not prescribed to you and never give anyone your prescription medication. Just last month a twelve year old girl died after her mother gave her part of her methadone dose for an injured knee.
Consider using these new drop boxes to dispose of old or unused medications. Right now it’s the safest choice we have.
For drop off locations click here.
For more information on medication return programs throughout Washington State click here.For more information on drug enforcement visit the DEA website.
Sources:
The News Tribune:
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